Sochi stadium rebuild completed for World Cup in 2018

 Officials overseeing World Cup preparations in the southern Russian city of Sochi say construction work on the city’s stadium has finished on time.

The stadium held the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympics, but has yet to host a soccer game because it needed extensive modifications to remove a temporary roof and increase capacity from 40,000 to 47,700.

Sochi is one of four host cities for next year’s Confederations Cup, a World Cup warm-up tournament.

Regional officials also say 150 Cossacks will be drafted in to help with Confederations Cup security. Cossacks, a paramilitary group dating back to Czarist times, attracted criticism when they provided security at the Sochi Olympics and used whips to break up a performance by opposition punk group Pussy Riot.